It was my daughter’s birthday yesterday and she asked for a chocolate cake. I checked a lot of chocolate cake recipes as this was a special request by a very special person. Nigella Lawson’s looked awesome. And it was. The richest chocolate cake ever. I made a bigger cake to serve 20 people. Here’s how I made it. Be sure all the ingredients are at room temperature before you start.

Recipe

Ingredients for cake

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups caster sugar (or use food mixer to cut regular sugar finer)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2/3 cup cocoa

1 1/2 cup unsalted butter

4 eggs

4 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/3 cup sour cream

How to make: Mix all the ingredients in a food mixer and beat slightly until they are all well blended. Pour the mix in a buttered pan and cook at pre-heated 350F or 180C over for about 50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the cake cool and separate it into two layers. I used a cake layer cutter because that’s what I have. It is of course much easier to use two pans with detachable bottoms like the ones holding the lemon cake layers in this photo. If you do, each layer needs less time to be done, about half an hour. The cake is yummy even without the frosting if all you need is a coffee cake.

Ingredients for frosting

12 ounces bitter (or semisweet) chocolate, melted in microwave oven

3/4 cup unsalted butter

5 cups confectioners’ sugar

2 tablespoon maple syrup

1 cup sour cream

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

How to make: Mix all the frosting ingredients using a food mixer with a whisk in this order: slightly cooled off melted chocolate + butter+syrup + vanilla extract + sour cream + confectioner’s sugar. You can add drops of hot water or more confectioner’s sugar if needed to make the mix thick enough but also soft enough for spreading. Place the first layer of the cake on a serving dish. Spread approximately 1/3 frosting on top. Put the second layer on top. Spread another 1/3 of the frosting on top. Using the last 1/3 to cover the sides. In my cake I ‘shaved’ some chocolate on top for decoration.

Notes and tips: If you have to store it in the fridge, remember to bring it to room temperature before you serve it. For the frosting, you can mix all the ingredients besides the sugar all at once and then pour them in a food mixer with the sugar in it to whisk it all together. If you bake one cake and then layer it yourself, don’t worry if it breaks a little. It will be covered with the frosting.

I’m not sure if Vicky has actually made this cake. I live in the U.S. and get sour cream from the supermarket. You can use `giaourti sakoulas’ instead to get the same texture. I read that, in baking, 1 cup of sour cream is equivalent to 1 cup yogurt and 1 teaspoon of soda but haven’t tried it myself.